Manuscript Studies
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The Schoenberg Institute for Manuscript Studies
Bringing manuscript culture, modern technology and people together.
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Announcements and News
- Save the Date for the 2026 Schoenberg Symposium! Stranger Things, November 12–14, 2026. Learn more about this year's symposium.
- Read the Summer 2026 issue of our newsletter here, and subscribe to receive all future monthly updates on our activities.
- The Spring 2026 issue (Vol. 11.1) of Manuscript Studies is now available in Diamond-level Open Access via Project Muse, as are all previous issues.
- Get all the latest updates from Digital Scriptorium and subscribe to the DS Mailing List.
- Learn about how SIMS staff and fellows are using the eScriptorium platform to build machine-learning models that can transcribe handwritten manuscripts from across the world in this recent Penn Libraries News story: Reading manuscripts in the digital space: How the Penn Libraries is advancing Handwritten Text Recognition.
- SIMS is excited to announce the following Visiting Research Fellows for the 2025–2026 academic year: Ali Noori (Fordham University), Hanno Wijsman (Institut de recherche et d’histoire des textes), and Emanuele Scieri (University of Glasgow).
- Discover BASIRA, the Books as Symbols in Renaissance Art database, a new digital resource for book history hosted by the Schoenberg Institute for Manuscript Studies. Enter the database or visit the project website to learn more.
- Join us every Thursday at 12:00PM Noon EDT / 5pm BST for Coffee with a Codex (via Zoom; registration required).
SIMS Blog Posts
Read about manuscript discoveries, initiatives, and other interesting happenings from SIMS staff.
About
Learn about SIMS, its founders, and its staff
Digital Projects
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Publications
Journal, books, exhibits, and other publications.
Fellowships
Opportunities for students and scholars
Teaching
Making use of our collections and expertise in person and remotely
Event Series
Lectures, workshops, and symposia, virtual and in person
Upcoming Events
List
- Workshop
July 30, 2026
Coffee with a Codex: Fragments and Franken-Books of Hours
On July 30, curator Dot Porter will show us several fragments from books of hours, and will talk about a relevant creative project she has been working on: The Frankenbook of Hours.
- 12:00pm - 12:30pm
- Online
Open to the Public
- Workshop
Select Thursday evenings, 5:00 to 7:00 pm
SIMS Graduate Student Manuscript Skills Workshop Series
If you are curious about how you can integrate manuscript sources into your own research, join us for a series of free, informal monthly workshops on essential topics in this field, offered by the Schoenberg Institute for Manuscript Studies (SIMS) at Penn Libraries.
- Vitale II Lab for Book History and Digital Humanities (Rm 623, 6th floor, Van Pelt-Dietrich Library).
Open to Penn Students Only
- Workshop
October 1, 2026
Coffee with a Codex: Treatise on Weight in Arabic
On October 1 (rescheduled from July 2), curator Dot Porter will bring out LJS 386, substantial sections from an illustrated treatise on the measurement of weight, with a historical introduction to theories of gravity and weighing in Greek and Arabic science.
- 12:00pm - 12:30pm
- Online
Open to the Public